By Kunle Awosiyan Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan is one of Nigeria’s most respected Catholic prelates. He turned 82 on January 29, 2026, and has spent decades promoting peace, interfaith dialogue, and national unity. Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, Cardinal Onaiyekan publicly expressed his support for Peter Obi and explained why he would not vote for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Like every Nigerian, he had the constitutional right to support the candidate of his choice. However, Obi eventually finished third in the election. Last week, Cardinal Onaiyekan joined other Catholic bishops in a…
Author: Abimbola Ogunaike
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By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola Several shops along the Tejuosho-Ojuelegba corridor in Lagos have been shut by the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) after their owners persistently ignored warnings against dumping refuse on road medians, defying months of advocacy and sensitisation by the state government. The crackdown, which took place on Sunday, 2 August, 2026 was carried out by LAWMA’s Waste Investigation, Surveillance and Enforcement (WISE) team, working alongside officials of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (KAI), personnel of OP MESA, and the Nigeria Police, in a joint operation targeting businesses that had continued to flout environmental sanitation laws despite…
By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola Tech billionaire, Elon Musk, has expressed surprise after his artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, claimed that Nigeria recorded about four million more births than the entire European Union (EU) in 2025. The exchange was shared by Musk on his X account on Saturday, 1 August, 2026 beginning with a user who asked whether Nigeria had one million more births than the EU last year. Responding to the question, Grok dismissed the claim, stating that the actual difference was significantly larger than one million. The chatbot stated, “Nigeria had roughly 7.5 million births last year, while the EU…
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says it will not relent in promoting women’s economic empowerment and gender equality through capacity-building programmes designed to prepare them for greater participation in agriculture, entrepreneurship and international trade. Speaking during the 2026 International Women’s Day celebration in Owerri, the Imo State Representative on the NDDC Board, Dr. Kyrian Uchegbu, noted that the Commission had launched an Agricultural Investment Fund targeted at women. According to him , “This International Women’s Day training for Imo State women is a preparatory programme in view of what the NDDC is ready to do for them. If we…
The Ogun State Executive Council has approved a fresh set of strategic infrastructure projects, including the construction of new legislative quarters, housing schemes, the reconstruction of the Ogun State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, the rehabilitation of major roads across the state, and the upgrading and recognition of traditional stools as part of Governor Dapo Abiodun’s commitment to sustainable development, urban regeneration and the preservation of the state’s cultural heritage. The approvals include the construction of 450 units of two-bedroom semi-detached bungalows with basic infrastructure facilities, the development of 28 new official quarters for members of the Ogun State House of…
By Lanre Adewole Penultimate weekend’s win of the Nigerian Bar Association presidency by Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, is the third consecutive time her South West zone would be saddled with an unwanted representative at the helm of the lawyers’ body. And this time, it hits closer home considering that the disfavoured, is also Yoruba. That sounds like Olusegun Obasanjo’s first presidential mount.The “emergence” of the Bar’s first elected female president, has further unclad the lawyers’ association, widely seen as consistently hemorrhaging value and credibility since democratic rule returned, like the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-34 who bled…
By Sunday Dare HISTORY has never been kind to institutions that mistake political opportunism for moral clarity. When the leadership of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), led by Most Rev. Matthew Ndagoso, accompanied by Archbishop Emeritus John Cardinal Onaiyekan, stepped into the State House on July 28, 2026, Nigerians expected a high-minded, clinical, and ecclesiastical engagement. Every religious leader who chooses to intervene in political debate assumes a delicate responsibility. The moral influence of the clerical office depends upon being seen as independent of every political tendency. The moment public interventions begin to resemble partisan commentary, that moral…
By Seye Oladejo As the countdown to the 2027 general elections gradually begins, political actors have started testing narratives they believe could shape the electoral conversation. Among these is the perennial attempt to reduce Nigeria’s democratic choices to the prism of religion. It is a temptation that has surfaced repeatedly in our political history, yet it has consistently failed to answer the real questions confronting the Nigerian electorate. The truth is simple: in 2027, religion should remain a non-issue. This is not because religion is unimportant. Far from it. Religion remains one of the strongest moral and social institutions in…
By Olabode Opeseitan There comes a point when a public figure’s relationship with the truth must be examined not emotionally, but evidentially. Mr. Peter Obi has reached that point. His recent claim that he would have personally entered the Oyo forest to rescue abducted pupils is only the latest in a long pattern of statements that collapse under the weight of documented records. What follows is a prosecutorial review of the facts, the official assessments, and the lived experiences that contradict the image he now projects. Leadership and the Discipline of Truth Insecurity is not an abstract policy debate. It…
By Bashir Adefaka There are people who occupy positions, and there are people who become the positions they occupy. There are leaders whose influence is defined by the office they hold, and there are those whose personal character, wisdom and conduct give extraordinary meaning to the office itself. Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar belongs, in my estimation, to the second category. To understand the enigma that is the Sultan of Sokoto, one must look beyond the splendour of the turban, the grandeur of the palace and the centuries-old institution over which he presides. One must look beyond the title of Amirul…